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More Speech, Please

Over a distinguished sixteen-year history, one of the hallmarks of the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival has been its willingness to provoke debate over controversial topics. Ironically, the festival has now landed in the midst of its own firestorm, and so far is dealing uncomfortably with the heat.

No doubt the festival did not mean to cause an uproar when it disclosed to members last week it was buying the Walsh property off Old County Road in West Tisbury with hopes of locating a permanent campus there. Festival director Thomas Bena has said there are no fixed plans for the site, and that the festival had always intended to involve the community in a vision for the location.

But in the absence of detailed plans, neighbors and others have seized on what little information was presented in March to the West Tisbury planning board to reject the very idea of siting the festival in a rural residential area.

Whatever the festival imagined in good faith would be the order of events has now been disrupted by a loud and sustained public outcry. Whether or not the criticism is fair, it’s time for the festival to address the neighbors’ concerns.

Evolving from its home-grown beginnings as a simple winter film festival to a vibrant, intellectual year-round cultural institution, MVFF has accomplished much in the past sixteen years. Its own commitment to free speech reminds us of Supreme Court Louis Brandeis’s prescription for countering misinformation: more speech.

Comments (3)

Jackson, West Tisbury

I think it's time for the MVFF to walk away from this deal. Hopefully a lesson learned in development 101. Speak to the abutters, the town, the boards first. Especially before you announce to your donors that you found a new home. What it failed to mention in that announcement is that the donor dollars will go to fight a 3-4-5 year legal battle against the town and neighbors you never consulted or listened to in the first place. Please just walk away, listen to the WT selectmen who were so measured and honest in their statement. I feel incredibly lucky and honored to live in a place where the town leaders and town citizens care so deeply about their home.. MVFF, please walk away, don't make everyone suffer over a lengthy battle for the next 3,4 or 5 years.

I really feel that many of those against are trying to bully their way forward. No plans have been presented but "we just don't want it" attitude plus the sometimes vicious, personal and frankly shameful response of some of these people makes me want to support the MVFF just out of spite.

Dear Washashore, person who names calls from a perch of anonymity, this editorial is not from the people of West Tisbury, it comes from one of the Film Festival's major sponsors - The Vineyard Gazette Media Group. And when your partner makes a public statement asking you to explain yourself it's telling, wouldn't you agree? It is time for the Festival to address West Tisbury's concerns and announce that they're withdrawing this ill-conceived proposal.